Labor

Just spent about three hours tweaking the second manuscript. Well, not an entire three hours, but the majority of it.

Cut some poems. Updated Acknowledgments page. Rearranged some sections and poems within sections. Worked with the title. Thought about it in a different light. Wondered what kind of poems might fit within the pages that are kicking around in my head.

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Also got a list of about forty places I hope to submit to electronically once I have more poems, hopefully by the end of the month.

It's awesome that more and more places, seemingly month-to-month these days, are using emailed submissions or the submissions manager to accept poems for consideration.

I want to save as much money as I can for $20 or $25 contest checks instead of the around $1.50 total single USPS submission...

I have my first workshop next weekend (Maria Gillan does three weekends, Saturday and Sunday, over the semester instead of a once-a-week night: it's supposed to be intense), and I'm hoping I can begin a new project if I can't get any of those poems written to fit into the second manuscript.

Tenative new second manuscript title: What's Left to Burn.

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Had a great time at the Binghamton Mets game with Luke and Chana.

Hopefully next summer we'll be able to hit a bunch more on weekends.

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Went to Tioga Downs yesterday with some friends. I won $25 after hitting four 2s playing video poker.

And though we only were doing $2 bets on the horse races, we ended up winning a few bucks by the end.

It's about twenty minutes down the road, and just like the Mets games closing out soon, the horse races are also done in a week or two (though the slots and other machines are open year-round).

But this way we have some things to do already once May comes next year...